What if the mess just can't be patched anymore?

That those thousands of years old political slogans and manipulations we call religion can no longer serve as cultural and civil foundations?

Ideals are not absolutes.

The core codes, creeds, heroes, narratives at the center of every society are ideals.

The universal, on the other hand, is the elemental, so a spiritual absolute would be the essence of sentience, from which we rise, not an ideal of wisdom and judgement, from which we fell.

Morality is an ideal, not an absolute. If it were absolute, it couldn't be transgressed, like a temperature below absolute zero.

To the Ancients, monotheism equated with monoculture. One people, one rule one god. Ancient Israel was a monarchy.

Democracy and republicanism originated in pantheistic cultures. Many ideas and ideals competing.

Constantine adopted Christianity for the monotheism, as the sides of the Empire came back together. While the origins of the Trinity were shrouded by the Holy Ghost.

The reason why the New Testament supplanted the Old Testament was because civilization had to grow beyond the Bronze Age tribalism it represented.

The networks mattered as much as the nodes.

"Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you." Because what goes round, comes round. Karma.

"Turn the other cheek," because two wrongs don't make a right.

Those old books make interesting heirlooms and contain a lot of valuable wisdom, but they really shouldn't govern our lives, or we find ourselves spiraling down that vortex in the middle.

Even galaxies are energy radiating out, as structure coalesces in.

There has to be balance and feedback between the anarchies of desire and the tyrannies of judgement.

Islam is also a monotheism. It does seem with all three forms, once the crazies and assholes gain the upper hand, it all goes to pot. Balance.